Teachings: Passover

The 49 days from Passover to Shavuot have a counting practice paired with qualities for personal development paired with them. A fully explained, full-color Omer Calendar is attached for you to feel free to print and use.

After asking the four questions, in some Moroccan families, the person leading the seder leaves the room and returns with the afikomen in a napkin draped over their shoulder (Tom Sawyer fashion, for Mark Twin fans) and then recounts the story of the exodus out of Egypt. This got me to thinking, if I was told overnight that I was leaving Egypt - what would I take with me? I recalled a Holocaust survivor showing me the little stack of photos she'd sewn into the leg of her pants just before she was taken prisoner......what would you take?

The 49 days from Passover to Shavuot have a counting practice paired with qualities for personal development paired with them. A fully explained, full-color Omer Calendar is attached for you to feel free to print and use.

This Torah portion is largely concerned with laws of bodily purity. The descriptions of bodily secretions and infections remind us that the kohanim, the priests, were the first dermatologists and infectious disease practitioners. How can you tell what is pure, tahor and what is impure, tamei? Tazria, as it is called, is the least popular Torah reading in the entire year’s cycle.

Passover, Pesach is a holy opera of spirit for which we prepare by cleaning and resetting the stage of our lives. different dishes, special foods, and a whole program called the seder (order) found in a book that is updated throughout the generations-- the Haggadah. This is lest we forget the gift inherent in creation's possibilities--and that gift is freedom!

Passover, Pesach is a holy opera of spirit for which we prepare by cleaning and resetting the stage of our lives. different dishes, special foods, and a whole program called the seder (order) found in a book that is updated throughout the generations-- the Haggadah. This is lest we forget the gift inherent in creation's possibilities--and that gift is freedom!

Some grandmothers are really good at telling stories. Mine wasn’t, but she made the BEST gefilte fish in the WORLD! I was born and raised in Jerusalem. My maternal grandmother, Mina, my Savta (grandmother in Hebrew), came from Poland and settled in Tel Aviv.

When almost all your congregants raise their hands to the question "Do you have a Christmas tree up this season in your home?" it's quite unsettling for a rabbi. This happened to me back in 1989 in a rural pulpit. The Hanukkah-Christmas dilemma full-blown. What to do, if anything?

A creative program came to mind during a night of troubled dreams. The president of the congregation, ever a supporter of my tendency towards R&D on behalf of the Jewish future, organized everything perfectly to my specifications. And the congregants came, almost all of them.

What does it mean when a child
is described as being wise?
Is she filled with wisdom based on life experience?
Not simply the first to raise her hand in response to a question,
But also imbued with awareness of when to answer first,
and when to hold back
When to respect others, those gifted with other forms of intelligence
that she may not have
such as the ability
to be